SBRT and extreme hypofractionation: A new era in prostate cancer treatments?

AimRadiation therapy (RT) is a standard therapeutic option for prostate cancer (PC). In the last decades, several innovative technology applications have been introduced. 3-Dimensional conformal RT, volumetric/rotational intensity modulated RT associated or not with image-guided RT, are becoming largely diffused in the treatment of PC.BackgroundConsidering that PC could have a low α/β ratio, similar to late-reacting normal tissues, it could also be highly responsive to fraction size. Thus, the reduction of the number of fractions and the increase of the dose/fraction seem to be reasonable choices in the treatment of this cancer. This review reported the technology evolution, the radiobiological and the clinical data about the role of extreme hypofractionated RT in the treatment approach of PC patients.Materials and methodsMedline search and analysis of published studies containing key words: prostate cancer, radiotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy.ResultsRecent technological developments, combined with an improved knowledge of the radiobiological models in favor of a high sensitivity of PC to larger fraction sizes are opening a new scenario in its treatment, reporting favorable efficacy and acceptable toxicity, despite short follow-up.ConclusionThus, thanks to technological improvement and the recent radiobiological data, “extreme hypofractionated RT” has been strongly introduced in the last years as a potential solid treatment option for PC.     

Radwaste at sea: A new era of polarization or a new basis for consensus?

Abstract

A coalition of third world nations, led by the Pacific island countries and those European nations who have developed land‐based disposal programs for their radioactive wastes, seek to amend the London Convention on Dumping (the international treaty controlling ocean disposal of radioactive and other wastes) in order to ban ocean disposal of low‐level radioactive wastes. Pro‐dumping nations maintain that the treaty may only be amended based on science and that current scientific research indicates that low‐level waste represents neither a threat to the integrity of the marine environment nor human health. Anti‐dumping nations, on the other hand, argue that the same science, particularly the models used to predict the fate and the effects of these wastes, exhibits sufficient uncertainty to preclude judgments about the absence of harm from future disposal activities. These differing conclusions mirror differing assessments of risk. These assessments build on the differing social, political, and economic values placed on use of the ocean and on conflicting conceptions of the fundamental rights and obligations of nations whose use of the ocean may impinge on the resources of others. Each side's continued intransigence may result in unilateral ocean disposal activities with serious consequences for the London Convention on Dumping (LDC) and its control over other wastes transported to sea for disposal. Initiatives of anti‐dumping nations to expand the LDC's decision‐making framework to examine the social, economic, and political issues underlying each side's interpretation of scientific evidence offer hope to address the underlying non‐scientific issues and perhaps to strengthen decision‐making within the LDC.     

Chemokine blockade: a new era in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis?

Blockade of chemokines or chemokine receptors is emerging as a new potential treatment for various immune-mediated conditions. This review focuses on the therapeutic potential in rheumatoid arthritis, based on studies in animal models and patients. Several knockout models as well as in vivo use of chemokine antagonists are discussed. Review of these data suggests that this approach might lead to novel therapeutic strategies in rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory disorders.     

Tired of the same old grind in the new genomics and proteomics era?

New discoveries in life sciences depend on accurate analysis of biomolecules, which in turn depends on the extraction of high-quality molecules in high quantities from the tissues of plants, animals or microorganisms. The extraction process for hard-to-lyse cells and tissues has been a bottleneck in the path to discovery for many years. This review describes extraction methods currently in use, and compares them to a newly developed, automated process involving patented pressure cycling technology (PCT). The PCT sample preparation system (SPS) uses an instrument capable of rapid, temperature-controlled pressure cycling between ambient and high pressures, and single-use sample tubes containing a ram and a lysis disk. The quality and quantity of nucleic acid and protein prepared by the PCT SPS method are comparable to the older methods, whereas ease and safety of processing, reproducibility, speed and control are enhanced.     

Plant-based manipulation of nitrification in soil: a new approach to managing N loss?

Much work has gone into the management of nitrification through applications of chemicals known to inhibit enzyme function in nitrifiers with indifferent outcomes when tested in the field. Much less attention has been focused on the capacity of plants to modify nitrification in situ. Subbarao and coworkers in a series of neat and elegant studies have confirmed that a tropical grass species, Brachiaria humidicola, produces chemicals that inhibit nitrification in soil. Critical to the work was the use of a Nitrosomonas europaea strain (nitrifying bacteria) that had been specifically constructed to produce bioluminescence due to the expression of “luxAB’ genes during nitrification. This application led to the development of an assay that enabled the suppression of nitrification to be assessed directly. They produce evidence that the production of chemicals by Brachiaria humidicola roots, described as biological nitrification inhibitors (BNIs), is under plant control. However, the triggers or molecular controls for BNI production have yet to be ascertained. Examination of the capacity of major crops to produce BNIs, including wheat (Triticum aestivum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), rice (Oryza sativa) and maize (Zea mays) indicate that these do not have this capacity. Work is needed on wild relatives of these crops and the major temperate grass species such as Lolium perenne to determine whether these have the capacity to produce BNIs with an aim to introduce this capacity into domesticated lines. The work of Subbarao et al. highlights how molecular biology can be used to introduce traits into micro-organisms responsible for key soil N transformations in a way that facilitates analysis of the interaction between plants and the soil environment so crucial to their growth and survival.     

Nitric oxide detoxification--a new era for bacterial globins in biotechnology?

For more than a decade, the expression of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) has been used to improve the growth and/or productivity of various organisms that are important for the production of valuable metabolites and recombinant proteins by biotechnological processes. Extensive experimental data have shown that VHb enhances the energy status of the cell under oxygen-limited conditions, presumably by improving the supply of intracellular oxygen. Recently, bacterial globin proteins have gained more attention in research because of their ability to detoxify nitric oxide (NO) in vivo. These new results have increased our knowledge, encouraging us to reconsider the role of VHb in vivo. The expression of heterologous globins might improve cellular protection against nitrosative stress under oxygen-limited conditions.     

The embryo culture media in the era of epigenetics: is it time to go back to nature?

This review is intended to draw attention to the importance of the culture media composition on the health of the embryos, fetuses, newborns, and adults derived from assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Although current research and industry trends are to use chemically defined media because of their suitability for manufacturing, commercialization, and regulatory purposes, compelling evidence indicates that those media fail to adequately account for the biological demands of early embryogenesis. Here, we list the main undesirable consequences of the ART described in the literature and results we and others have obtained over the past decade exploring an alternative and more natural way to support embryo growth in vitro: inclusion of endogenous reproductive fluids as additives in the ART culture media for pigs, cows, and humans. This review systematically assesses the pros and cons of using reproductive fluid additives, as well as the requirements to implement this approach in the future.     

Soil seedbank: Old methods for new challenges in agroecology?

The weed soil seedbank is of interest in agroecosystems as a major source of weed infestation in fields and as a reservoir of plant and seed‐feeder diversity. A seedbank is a characteristic of annual plants and has been the focus of numerous studies, as it reflects the past aboveground vegetation and is the reservoir of the future vegetation. Therefore, it potentially can be used to evaluate the past, present and future annual weed communities. The goal of this paper was to provide guidelines to help researchers to do a weed seedbank survey. Through a qualitative review of 60 weed seedbank articles, we investigate why and how the seedbank has been studied in agronomy. It shows that seedbank studies have been performed to address the following four major objectives: (a) the assessment of weed management practices on weed communities; (b) the relationship between seedbank and aboveground vegetation; (c) the study of composition and diversity of seedbank in a given area; and, (d) the quantification of seedbank as a food resource for wildlife. Because the analysis highlighted a wide range of methodologies to estimate the seedbank, we critically reviewed them. We show that the selected methodology strongly affects the seedbank estimate. Nevertheless, in our sample of research articles, the analysis revealed that the choice of the methodology was not always justified in terms of achieving a particular scientific goal, but was often determined by the resources available for the experiment (e.g., workload). While studying the soil seedbank remains of interest for scientists (proved by the amount of recent publications), it is time consuming and requires considerable botanical skill. Innovative methods of estimation are scarce and novel methodological developments are needed to increase the quality and reliability of the data obtained.     

Which cervical sampler? A comparison of four methods

Four cytology sampling methods were compared in 1063 patients referred for colposcopy with a recent abnormal smear. A dyskaryotic smear of any grade was considered a positive result, though comparisons were limited to cases with a subsequent biopsy confirming CINII or III. There were no differences between the abilities of any of the four methods to detect higher grades of CIN (χ²₃=4.603, P >0.20). the presence or absence of endocervical cells in a smear was not significantly associated with any variation in success rate (χ²₁=0.959, P >0.30). the joint analysis of the four methods and the presence/absence of endocervical cells also showed no significant effects (χ²₇=12.768, 0.1 > P >0.05). In the latter analysis the trend towards a conventional level of significance was accounted for by the Aylesbury spatula giving a relatively high success rate when endocervical cells were present. the suggestion of advantage for the Aylesbury spatula merits further investigation.